I want to thank attendees at yesterdays presentation of 21st Century British Muslim – the solution? and the staff at Date Valley School, London, for providing a venue for the first run of this event for the Association of Muslim Schools.
This course is designed for faith schools looking to meet latest requirements related to SMSC, safeguarding and British values provided by outstanding student-centred teaching, without compromising unique faith school ethos, and is nothing less than an operationalisation of the reflections outlined in What comes out of the Birmingham “Trojan Horse”?
Islamic, British, or both? Clash of the icons – an exit door at Date Valley School
We are therefore especially pleased that all participants classified Presenter’s Preparation & Methodology, Course Materials and Course in relation to expectations as either good or outstanding.
The following headings are course units, with their LOs and relevant highlights. Paragraph heading reflect course outline and function as a summary for participants and an introduction to interested parties, including Christian and other schools serving faith communities. RE teachers looking for free, online resources on Islamic civilisational contributions will find links in relevant chapters.
The units followed ice-breaker exercise and personal introductions. (For instructions of the first CLIP used, Catch1Partner, please see Potential realised? Celebrating Ofsted Report’s 1st Birthday…)
- make changes to your lesson plans
- buy or create special materials
- use this method through-out a lesson
- use this method in every lesson.
- monitor pupils’ learning in real time
- integrate social skills at every turn
- facilitate subject learning and higher level thinking through student-centred learning
- secure written evidence of learning
- drive up attainment, progress and close achievement gaps. (see posts on the Sutton Trust)
- define step-by-step which how students interact with materials and each other
- are void of content
This means the same CLIP may be used again and again, using different content across all subjects. For instructions of the first CLIP used, Catch1Partner, please see Potential realised? Celebrating Ofsted Report’s 1st Birthday…
- First decide your lesson aims and the content (materials, questions, tasks)
- then choose the appropriate CLIP to meet your needs.
21st CENTURY SKILLS
This is the wider context of the course objectives, especially vital given the extreme focus of immigrant communities of career relevance discussed in the previous post on the course.
- Critical Thinking & Problem Solving
- Creativity & Innovation
- Communication & Collaboration
- Flexibility & Adaptability
- Initiative & Self-Direction
- Social Cross-Cultural Skills
- Productivity
- Accountability
- Leadership & Responsibility
– Participant, 21st Century British Muslim, Date Valley School, 2015
UNIT 1: REFLECTIONS ON CULTURAL ISSUES
- …define a range of values and activities through negotiation (What does “wearing a cap mean? What’s a cap? Who wears caps? What’s the signal it sends?”).
- …define which values and activities are “Islamic,” “British” or both.
- …negotiate the meaning of these terms in each case
…through negotiation precisely define which aspects of values and activities that are “Islamic” or not, by using a tailored Think-Pair-Share to place them appropriately in Venn Diagrams.
CL, MONITORING AND REALISTIC ASSESSMENT
- discover which areas of Islam are focused on by non-Muslims
- discover which are seen as positive and negative by non-Muslims
- reflect on reasons for these opinions
integrating vital cross-curricular skills:
- use skimming and scanning techniques
- identify key points in a text
- effective note taking
- Prepare an oral summary by recapping and restructuring information; understanding and memorization
See Norwich High School for Girls; A tailored workshop lesson plan and following posts, for a detailed lesson plan, including the spider diagramming.
UNIT 3: MUSLIM CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILISATION
- …discover the greatness of Muslim intellectual heritage and civilizational contributions.
- …feel pride and a sense of worth and self-respect.
- …perceive that Islam historically has promoted scientific and technological discovery and enquiry.
…relate the above to the current situation of Muslims in the UK….reflect on what this means to their own future lives as Muslims in Britain.
- materials were not changed.
- all questions in the plan were answered
- pupils’ learning monitored in real time
- social skills integrated at every turn
- subject learning and higher level thinking & communication facilitated
- written evidence of learning secured
- Individual Accountability, Positive Interdependence, Equal Participation, Simultaneous Interaction at every stage ensured
UNIT 4: HIGHER LEVEL THINKING AND REFLECTIONS ON OWN LEARNING
Here we presented how to use a science lesson to promote these aims. Distillation, the means of separating liquids through differences in their boiling points, was invented around the year 800 by Islam’s foremost scientist, Jabir ibn Hayyan, who transformed alchemy into chemistry, inventing many of the basic processes and apparatus still in use today – liquefaction, crystallisation, distillation, purification, oxidation, evaporation and filtration.
As well as discovering sulphuric and nitric acid, he invented the alembic still, giving the world intense rosewater and other perfumes and alcoholic spirits. Ibn Hayyan emphasised systematic experimentation and was the founder of modern chemistry.
- “If the Muslims invented the distillery- why not the the oil refinery?
- “Think about your answers and look at the Muslims in the UK;which skills are needed right now?”
- “What can we, as Muslims, do to acquire these skills?”
– Participant
UNIT 5: NEGOTIATING CONFLICTING VALUES AND VIEWPOINTS
- have made a safe enquiry into potential conflict areas between Islamic and British Values
- be able to describe, correlate, criticise, and synthesise some of the viewpoints and arguments about freedom of expression, religious tolerance, the role of media, Islamic vs. secular (British) values, and consequences of terrorism, specifically related to the attacks on Charlie Hebdo.
The workshop will enquire into various themes, including:
- systemic issues and the purpose of ‘modern’ education in secular post-modernity
- community building boundaries; Birmingham, et al.
- the new role of religion and Religious Education: SMSC, PHSE, Citizenship & British values
- student-centred paradigms; renegotiated power relationships or egotism?
- social constructivism as a democratic skill set; British values as an example
- beyond now; P4C, the Trivium and the Islamic connection in English educational history
- Islam and Muslim alternative education; problem for whom or solution to what?
Please contact me on contact@werdelin.co.uk for more information.
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